The SIGNAL Blog

CACI International Incorporated has been awarded a $29 million prime task order to continue its support for the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security Chief Technology Officer. The task order provides real-time services for the operation, maintenance and development of information technology systems that enable the Bureau to conduct State Department security and law enforcement missions.

General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems has been awarded a $52 million contract by the U.S. Navy to provide operational support; field engineering, repair and return services; training; and system development for the U.S. and U.K. TRIDENT II (D5) Fire Control System. The contract also includes SSGN Attack Weapons Control Systems life-cycle cost control and technology refresh work.

Future U.S. Navy submarines will be able to obtain a better operational picture by launching their own unmanned aerial systems (UASs). A recent test by the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Newport, Rhode Island, demonstrated that a submerged vessel can deploy a UAS at sea.

The demonstration simulated the submarine launch of a specialized UAS to collect intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data in a littoral environment. During the demonstration, two launch vehicles were deployed over the side of a surface ship. The vehicles descended to 80 feet and then surfaced. Once on the surface, the craft stabilized themselves in variable sea states, aligned into the wind and then launched a dummy UAS.

The test, which took place at the Narragansett Bay Shallow Water Test Facility Range, Rhode Island, is part of the Navy's Submarine Over the Horizon Organic Capabilities (SOTHOC) program. Future SOTHOC tests will deploy a UAS from a submerged submarine to evaluate its performance in a maritime interdiction mission. The UAS and its deployable launch vehicle are designed and manufactured by the Raytheon Company.

Single-frequency amplifiers are being developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA's) new Revolution in Fiber Lasers program. The program is designing building blocks to combine laser beams that can be scaled to a weapons-class power level while maintaining good beam quality.

Military4life is designed to provide service personnel and their families with the latest information on military pay, morale and welfare, and lifestyle news. The home page features a list of discounts on items such as cell phones, computers, airline tickets and cruises. Other areas covered by the site include military loans, credit reports, military pay data, TRICARE military supplement insurance and military charities.

The next SIGNAL Webinar, "Data at Rest Protection: An Integral Part of an Enterprise Data Protection Strategy," will be on Tuesday, December 9 at 12 Eastern. Here's the description:

Government agencies and enterprises require an Enterprise Data Protection (EDP) solution to effectively secure their data from the "core" where key data repositories exist, across networks, and all the way to the "edge" where the data is used - a perimeter defense will no longer suffice in today's world. A truly comprehensive EDP solution includes database / server encryption, network encryption, key management systems, disk & file encryption, and authentication tokens.

This webinar will focus on one element of Enterprise Data Protection, the role of data at rest protection in encrypting your sensitive data and allowing you to save money in the process. Encrypting the data ensures that it cannot be compromised while it is residing on databases, laptops, or file servers. Encrypting data also ensures that it is rendered useless to the attacker should a security breach occur.

GovLoop is a social network dedicated to connecting the government community. More than 3,200 members strong, the community's membership ranges from local and state officials to feds from a wide range of agencies.

GovLoop founder Steve Ressler created a group forum for AFCEA, which we moderate. Just a few members so far, but there are a lot of great conversations taking place there, unlike some social networks where people join but never talk.

EF Johnson Technologies Incorporated has been named as a contractor under a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) from the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). This BPA will be used by federal government agencies for the purchase of EF Johnson analog and P25 digital subscribers and Native Internet Protocol conventional and trunked networks, operating in the VHF, UHF and 700/800 MHz frequency bands. The total estimated value of the BPA is $381 million over a maximum term of five years.

Cubic Applications Incorporated has been awarded a contract with a potential value of $4.8 million to continue educational services to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) at Fort Benning, Georgia. Under the contract, Cubic will continue to provide a link between WHINSEC and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, facilitating the transfer of courseware between the two schools and organizing and preparing courseware at WHINSEC.

As cybercrime and cyberwarfare continue to be the defining challenges of the 21st century, how can the new administration and Congress best prepare the country to fully embrace cybersecurity as a national priority?

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The U.S. Army is procuring Motorola’s WAVE software technology to fill a need for a unified application that links two-way radios, smartphones, telephones and personal computers together for seamless communications. The $14.1 million contract provides the Army with unlimited access to the capability. WAVE will act as the glue to patch together devices normally incapable of communicating with one another.